Running ArcGIS on a Mac

ArcGIS Desktop or ArcGIS Pro will not work natively on an Apple Macintosh computer. To use it on a Mac, you must be running Windows. To do this you can either create a dual boot setup using Bootcamp ($0), or set up a virtual machine using Parallels ($40).

1. Setting up a dual boot system with Bootcamp

This is a free option, but will require you to either work in Windows or MacOS--you cannot toggle between the two without restarting the computer. Note that files stored in one partition will be available in the other.

Launch the Bootcamp Assistant. Navigate to the copy of Windows 10 you downloaded.

When prompted, partitiion at least 25 GB of space for Windows--more if you plan to work with large datasets.

Let the Bootcamp Assistant run and select the new drive you just created to install Windows on. Make sure the size of the drive you pick matches the size that you specified in the previous step to avoid overwriting your MacOS drive.